Debris found from plane; black boxes tougher

Missing plane

Federico Escher and Bradley Brooks, Associated Press

Published
4:00 am PDT, Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Photo: Eraldo Peres, AP

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** ADDS INFORMATION ABOUT PERSON IN PICTURE ** A member of Brazil's military runs in front of a Brazilian Air Force helicopter that just landed after taking part in the searching mission of the Air France flight 447, in Fernando de Noronha, 350 kms off the coast of Natal, in northeastern Brazil, Tuesday, June 2, 2009. The Air France airplane, carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, ran into a towering wall of thunderstorms and disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean late Sunday local time. Brazilian military pilots spotted early Tuesday an airplane seat, an orange buoy, and other debris and signs of fuel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as they hunted for the jet. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres) less

** ADDS INFORMATION ABOUT PERSON IN PICTURE ** A member of Brazil's military runs in front of a Brazilian Air Force helicopter that just landed after taking part in the searching mission of the Air France ... more

Photo: Eraldo Peres, AP

Debris found from plane; black boxes tougher

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An airplane seat, a fuel slick and pieces of white debris scattered over 3 miles of open ocean marked the site in the mid-Atlantic Tuesday where Brazilian officials said Air France Flight 447 crashed.

Brazilian military pilots spotted the wreckage, sad reminders bobbing on waves, in the ocean 400 miles northeast of these islands off Brazil's coast. The plane carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris vanished Sunday about four hours into its flight.

"I can confirm that the 5 kilometers of debris are those of the Air France plane," Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said at a hushed news conference in Rio. He said no bodies had been found and there was no sign of life.

The effort to recover the debris and locate the all-important black box recorders, which emit signals for only 30 days, is expected to be exceedingly challenging.

"We are in a race against the clock in extremely difficult weather conditions and in a zone where depths reach up to 7,000 meters (41/3 miles)," French Prime Minister Francois Fillon told lawmakers in parliament Tuesday.

Brazilian military pilots first spotted the floating debris early Tuesday in two areas about 35 miles apart, said air force spokesman Jorge Amaral. The area is not far off the flight path of Flight 447.

The cause of the crash will not be known until the black boxes are recovered - which could take days or weeks. But weather and aviation experts are focusing on the possibility of a collision with a brutal storm that sent winds of 100 mph straight into the airliner's path.

"The airplane was flying at 500 mph northeast and the air is coming at them at 100 mph," said AccuWeather.com expert senior meteorologist Henry Margusity. "That probably started the process that ended up in some catastrophic failure of the airplane."

Towering Atlantic storms are common this time of year near the equator - an area known as the intertropical convergence zone. "That's where the northeast trade winds meet the southeast trade winds," said Margusity.